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The alcohol treatment industry uses the
Jellinek curve
to describe the timeline of alcohol addiction and recovery. These
antiquated treatment systems see hitting rock bottom and
abstaining permanently as essential parts of the recovery process.
LifeBac helps people who want to cut back their drinking take
control before the slide into alcoholism. We're not a rehab
or treatment clinic, but a collection of modern, science-based
tools to empower people not just to avoid the downward spiral, but
to better themselves and their relationships permanently. LifeBac
lets you dodge the downward spiral; loss of relationships, career,
finances, and health; and pain of detox, withdrawal, rehab, AA,
and lifelong abstinence.
Take control of your drinking today before it's too
late!
Adi Jaffe, Ph.D., a LifeBac partner who offers access to an exclusive behavior-change program through our platform, writes in The Abstinence Myth that problem-drinking is a symptom of a larger issue. Drinking helps take the edge off, but leaves unresolved issues behind. As life’s unresolved problems stack up, the drinking keeps up too.
“SAMHSA’s definition of recovery doesn’t include abstinence anywhere within it. In fact, I tell those I work with that if all they achieved by working with me is abstinence, then I have failed them. True recovery is not about abstaining, but about flourishing.”
Dr. Jaffe's revolutionary course gets to the core of the problem in a nonjudgemental, convenient way, allowing anyone who struggles with over-drinking to find real change from the comfort of their own home. Take the course at your own pace and control your own progress.
Alcohol treatment programs have hardly changed since the 1950’s; the medical profession and Alcoholics Anonymous deemed alcoholism a disease, assuming that certain people are innately prone to alcoholism, and taking responsibility away from the addict in the hope that more people would seek treatment. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) defines Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) as a “chronic relapsing brain disease”.
90% of people who want to cut back their drinking won't seek help to avoid being labelled an alcoholic, bundled into the antiquated and extreme alcohol treatment system, and forced to quit.
Lance Dodes, M.D., former Director of the Substance Abuse
Treatment Unit of Harvard’s McLean Hospital, says that alcoholism
is not a disease. It’s a symptom of a larger psychological issue —
something happening in that person’s life. It's a compulsion, like
gambling, and needs to be treated that way.
“I've probably treated a couple of thousand people who have one
addiction or another. Almost all residential treatment programs
in the United States are 12-Step-based, so their effectiveness
will depend entirely on whether 12-Step programs work, and the
statistics for AA are not good. It is helpful for 5‒10%, and
that's a good thing; that's 5‒10% of people who are being helped
by AA — it's a lot better than zero percent — but it shouldn't
be thought of as the standard of treatment because it fails for
most people — for the vast majority of people.”
It labels people “alcoholics” for life and creates undue shame and
stigma around seeking help when most people who over-drink aren't
alcoholics and simply want to drink less.
It takes the individual’s power to decide to change away, then the
90%+ who fail treatment believe not only that they are powerless,
but that they can’t ever succeed. This destroys their self-worth
and pushes them further towards the solace of alcohol.
The disease model convinces its victims that they have a chronic
disease, leading many to believe that they will never be free,
when, in reality, most excessive drinkers can make it out.
Mark Willenbring, MD talking at the Nobel Conference on Addiction
(14 mins)
Alcohol overindulgence is related to the same neurological reward pathways as gambling, sex, food, and porn. Addiction is in the brain, not the substance. 20% of returning soldiers from Vietnam identified themselves as heroin addicts upon being shipped home. 95% of them successfully discontinued heroin use upon returning. This video from Johanne Hari exposes the myth of the “chemical hook”
Many people today simply do not believe they have a chronic
disease, they don’t want to abstain for life, and they don’t want
the stigma and shame of being labeled an alcoholic. They prefer to
continue as they are, try quitting cold turkey or try using
willpower to fight off cravings than go to Alcoholics Anonymous or
rehab, so they simply don’t seek alcohol treatment. 30 million
people in the U.S. have AUD, and another 30 million are either
binge drinkers or heavy drinkers. Only 10% of people with AUD ever
seek help and most of those are forced to by the courts or
relatives. Many have multiple visits to multiple programs - the
revolving door effect.
Neuroscientist Marc Lewis explains in easy to understand and
entertaining language the learning model of craving and why it is
not a disease, and that most people with the desire to change and
the help of medication and tools can rewire their mind and kick
the habit forever.
85% of rehabs and Alcoholics Anonymous all subscribe to the disease theory: they treat alcoholism as a chronic disease that follows its victims for life. They preach that the only path to recovery is to surrender, admit helplessness, and suffer through a lengthy recovery ending in abstinence. Under this system, of course, only 10% of those who drink too much ever seek help, and only 10% of them find any success. 99.9% of problem-drinkers suffer needlessly daily with a destructive yet fixable habit.
LifeBac combines medication to remove cravings and tools to break the habit loop, so you can not only avoid rock bottom and the pain of recovery but have a better life without having to quit.
"Most of it (treatment) can be done in primary care... I mean,
a counselor with a GED preaching AA for four weeks is no backup
for a physician... Medications are going to become increasingly
important, that’s why the neuroscience research is so
important... Most therapy - psychotherapy - will be provided on
the web. So those are the future directions, and there is a lot
to say about the use of technology as well. The future is
bright, but we have to make treatment available, accessible,
affordable, and attractive."
Mark Willenbring, MD
Former Director of the NIAAA Division of Treatment and Recovery
Research
This is LifeBacs's philosophy: the future has arrived.
Pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy can be delivered online
anywhere with technology to support.
Baclofen removes or strongly suppresses cravings for alcohol in 92% of people. These strong cravings are the #1 reason people have difficulty cutting back or quitting drinking. Clinical trials give Baclofen a 65% success rate returning treatment-resistant alcoholics to low- or medium-risk drinking. 50% of those who succeed using Baclofen go further and quit drinking entirely by choice. The less the person previously drank and the shorter the time, the less medication required.
LifeBac gives you the choice of whether you want to drink or not. When you do choose to drink, you’ll feel more satisfied much sooner. The result is significantly fewer drinking days and significantly fewer drinks on those days. Baclofen doesn’t, however, affect the taste of alcohol or the pleasure of drinking — it simply removes the addictive components that lead to overindulgence and allows you to drink in moderation.
In 2008, Dr. Olivier Ameisen, Weill Cornell Hospital cardiologist
and the former first physician to the Prime Minister of France,
discovered a solution to his chronic over-drinking after 8 rehab
stints and 5000 AA meetings. He experimented on himself using
baclofen to markedly decrease the release of dopamine in the
reward pathway of the brain, diminishing or suppressing the
conditioned response to alcohol.
He reported
“complete suppression, not just a reduction in cravings; I am
indifferent to it.”
Dr. Anna Rose Childress from the University of Pennsylvania performed experiments on cocaine users to assess the efficacy of baclofen (baclofen has been proven in humans to be effective for both alcohol and cocaine cravings). Her experiments have shown that cravings result from the cue-triggered activation of the mesolimbic dopamine system, these cues can be so brief that they are outside of conscious awareness, yet produce robust activation within this circuitry. Baclofen is a GABAB receptor agonist that reduces the release of dopamine into this system elicited by alcohol cues and seems to do so at the very earliest onset of the dopamine rush so as to stop the craving from happening.
An Excerpt from the HBO Documentary, "Addiction"
Doctors in Europe prescribe baclofen as the primary treatment for alcohol misuse. In France alone there are over 10,000 prescribing physicians and more than 300,000 people taking baclofen (from a population ⅙ of the U.S.) for help with alcohol cravings. It is in the process of being approved as the first-line alcohol treatment in Australia after a petition by the Royal Perth Hospital. In the U.S., the FDA has already approved the medication as safe (although originally as a muscle relaxant), it can be prescribed by U.S. physicians (but rarely is) for alcohol cravings. Baclofen has 65% success rates compared with 7% for Alcoholics Anonymous and rehab yet most physicians will still recommend AA and rehab over medications, only 1% of people seeking help with over-drinking in the U.S. receive medication.
Clinical trials in Europe have shown 65% success allowing
treatment-resistant alcoholics to return to low-risk drinking
levels or abstinence when using the Ameisen method of titrated
(not fixed) dose. These studies also showed that 92% of patients
had a noticeable reduction in cravings. Approximately 50% of those
who were successful on baclofen decided themselves to quit
entirely.
Several studies have not been as conclusive with many using flawed
assumptions or goals, mostly too low a dose, too short a study,
using fixed-dose instead of titration, or measuring only
abstinence not achieving low-risk drinking. One study concluded
that baclofen was no more effective than placebo, but its results
showed both the placebo and Baclofen with a 65% success rate.
Studies using the Ameisen method with titration have proven 65%
successful on average or two out of three people
Baclofen treatment requires titration (slow dose increase) until
cravings are completely removed or controlled (the effective dose)
which varies widely between patients dependent on previous
drinking habits. There is no necessity to detox or abstain just
continue to drink normally. For most people the number of drinks
per day will reduce naturally, others describe it as “flicking a
switch”.
There can be minor side effects including tiredness, nausea,
headaches or dizziness, they are usually easily manageable and go
away within a few days. This happens mostly at the start. The vast
majority of people persist as they pass in a couple of days when
they occur, and the benefits of control over drinking far outweigh
the temporary unpleasant side effects.
The LifeBac app and team manage each individual’s titration
process minimizing side effects to deliver a life free of cravings
and all the benefits of drinking at low-risk levels.
Baclofen is processed by the kidneys, not the liver, so it is well-suited for alcohol treatment
Clinical trials show that baclofen significantly reduces or removes the effects of alcohol withdrawal.
Between 2002 and 2013, Alcohol Use Disorder increased by 83.7% among women in the United States (NIAAA). In younger age groups, women already drink significantly more than men, and it's having an increasingly visible effect on their overall health. 1 in 6 women admit to having driven drunk in the past year, and 70% are consistently drinking at unsafe levels according to the WHO. A 2018 study found a steep overall rise in the number of alcohol-related ER visits between 2006 and 2014, but the increase was notably greater for women than men.
As a society, we often make the mistake of assuming over-drinking to be a male-dominated issue; up until 1961, women in Illinois were legally allowed to buy alcohol at 18 instead of 21, because it was believed that female drinking was never problematic. It's time we abandon these antiquated assumptions and face the truth: women are suffering now more than ever from problem-drinking, and must be supported.
Anxiety and Alcohol Use Disorder influence and maintain each other in a positive feedback loop. Anxiety often pushes people to drink, and excessive drinking is known to significantly increase anxiety, maintaining and worsening both issues in a "vicious cycle of comorbidity" (NIH: Anxiety and Alcohol Use Disorders). "Hangxiety" is the term coined for the rush of strong anxiety that comes on after a heavy drinking session, often late at night, interrupting sleep and further reinforcing the loop.
Baclofen is also used as an anxiolytic (a drug used to reduce anxiety). It works directly on the brain's reward pathways to reduce urges to drink alongside general anxiety, helping to reverse the cycle.
When processes are repeated for years or decades, the habit is tightly wound, it is possible to unwind the habit loop using mindfulness. Practicing mindfulness allows you to step back and see what is happening inside your mind and take action to step in and break the loop. “Habits can be described as automatic behavioral loops, involving triggers, behaviors, and rewards. For example, one may feel stressed (trigger), take a drink or two (behavior), and feel better (reward). When you attain (and, later, anticipate) the reward, your brain releases dopamine in a neural process that lays down a memory of that behavior and helps you learn to execute that behavior next time to attain the reward.” Judson Brewer, Ph.D.
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We built LifeBac to show people with a drinking problem that there
is a way out, a way to beat this problem and return to a normal
life without the requirement of abstinence or “recovery”. The
modern methods of combining medication to remove cravings, with
behavior change to rewire habits can help people rebuild their
lives, their careers, their health.
But our aim is to go further than that, by helping these people
return to normal drinking habits and building their lives into
something much better than their old view of “normal” we hope to
also save many marriages and families. We feel that abundantly
more healthy, happy people and better family lives is a worthy
goal!
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LifeBac is designed to turn the alcohol treatment upside down
putting the person with the problem at the top, not at the bottom.
Give that person all the tools to succeed, the power to choose
their own path, their own goals, and how fast or slow they would
like to get there. Give them medication so they control their
drinking, not the other way around, a coach to motivate for habit
change and access to powerful behavior change programs.
This is very different from being at the bottom. Being told they
have a disease and they need to succumb and do as they are told is
their only hope.
For too long people with a drinking problem have been forced to
keep their drinking problem secret lest they end up labeled an
“alcoholic” and spend the rest of their days abstinent, fighting
cravings, and in rehab or AA meetings.
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Why are problem-drinkers still being treated with 1930’s
treatments? Who would still go to the dentist if
this
was the treatment? It’s little wonder only 10% of problem-drinkers
seek treatment at all when this is what they expect.
Our mission is to bring the very best modern treatments from
around the globe and offer them in the privacy of the home or
office. A combination of modern effective treatments using the
best technology for the best results. No shame, no stigma, no
judgment.
And let’s remove the shame about talking about alcohol problems
now that there are effective treatments. 33% of people confess
lying to their doctor about how much they drink for fear of the
consequences. Let’s talk about our successes and help more people!
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